Topic: Threats and promises: The partitioners’ policy for Polish lands

Target group

7th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

7th‑grade students of elementary school

XXIV. Polish lands under the partitions in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Pupil:

1. explains the objectives and describes the methods of the partitioning powers towards the inhabitants of the former Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth – Russification, Germanization (Kulturkampf), Galician autonomy.

The student characterizes and evaluates diverse attitudes of the society towards the partitioners.

General aim of education

Students learn the methods of the partitioning powers against the inhabitants of the former Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth - Russification, Germanization (Kulturkampf), Galician autonomy.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• to list the rulers of Polish lands in the second half of the 19th century;

• to characterize the different situations of Poles under three partitions;

• to define the methods used by the partitioners.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• expository

  • talk.

• exposing

  • film.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. The teacher asks the students to read the subsection „Zmowa milczenia w sprawie polskiej” and to do Task 1 and 2 from the e‑textbook. Students analyze a postcard from the era. Then they find on the map the Polish lands under the domination of Germany, Austria (Austro‑Hungary) and Russia in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Introduction

1. The teacher explains the students the purpose of the lesson and the criteria for success.

2. The teacher - referring to the tasks prepared by the students at home - reminds the students that the power in Poland was exercised by representatives of three dynasties: Hohenzollerns, Romanovs and Habsburgs. Students do Exercise 1. They match the names of rulers to the appropriate part of the table.

Realization

1. The teacher displays the timeline from the e‑textbook and divides the class into two groups. Each team will prepare in the course of the lesson arguments regarding the issue of Germanization and Russification. Students get acquainted with the issues. For this purpose group I does Task 1 (russification), and Group II - Task 2 (germanization). They get acquainted with the text and note in the course of their joint work: on the yellow cards, factors that favor Germanization / Russification, and on green cards - factors that are unfavorable. Students can also reach for English‑language materials on the Internet (non‑obligatory) and use the displayed timeline. Then they stick their sticky notes on a sheet of paper, in the triangle box (with the password entered in the middle), turned vertically down. Favorable factors „support it” and those unfavorable try to „overturn” it. After completing the task, the representative of each group presents the effects of the group's work. The teacher and / or students prepare a photographs of the work. The teacher makes sure that the task has been correctly completed and gives feedback.

2. The teacher asks students to do Task 3, i.e. to listen to a broadcast about the figure of Franz Josef I. Next, he introduces students to the history of Galician autonomy, its genesis and basic institutions. He asks students: Why is the colloquial imagination and memory of the reign of Franz Josef I manifested in the consciousness of Poles in a sympathetic manner? Students justify their answer using the knowledge learned from the lesson.

Summary

1. The teacher asks to do (in class or at home) Exercise 2 which is a summary of knowledge about the partitioning activities.

2. The teacher gives students evaluation surveys in which they evaluate their own work during the lesson, the work of the teacher and colleagues.

Homework

1. The teacher sets homework (it is not an obligatory part of the script): he proposes to prepare an essay on the policy of the partitioners based on the thesis: Politically beneficial to all partitioners was to fuel national animosities. The reference point for the student may be the section „The policy of sharing” and the time capsule, included in the lesson.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Threats and promises: The partitioners’ policy for Polish lands

Until the beginning of the 1860s, the issue of Poland was a fixed item in the political agenda of European countries. The situation changed with the defeat of the January Uprising, and the fall of the Second French Empire and the Paris Commune, as of which the official European political stage became silent. Following the defeat of the January Uprising, the imperial authorities abolished the autonomy of the Kingdom of Poland and created the Vistula Land in its place. This was a period of intense Russification, especially in the fields of administration and education. A similar policy was adopted by the Prussians, who commenced intensified Germanisation in Greater Poland. The fight against the Church earned the name Kulturkampf and was fought simultaneously in Prussia and throughout Germany. Germanisation affected settlements as well. 1885 marked the beginning of compulsory displacements, which Polish people referred to as Prussian deportations. The situation was different in Galicia, which, thanks to internal reforms in the Habsburg Empire, was granted broad administrative and educational autonomy. There, Polish people could freely organise national ceremonies, anniversaries and jubilees.